Explore and evaluate the representation of the female figure in two paintings –

In Titian’s ‘Venus of Urbino’, the representation of the female figure is shown by having the
model laying down on her bed portrayed with an idealistic female body. Her body
proportions are not perfectly accurate to a realistic female body with her face also idealised,
reflecting the Venetian beauty of that time period. The feminine curvature of her body
contrasts with the straight and hard lines and edges of the room. Titian’s use of chiaroscuro
between the dark black wall and her body contrasts making her flesh come more to life,
with as many as 10 – 15 layers of very thin translucent oil paint which were said to have
been added making the figure glow with soft outlining. Her torso is also too long and she has
very small feet which represents how her figure is unrealistic with these changes made to
further idealise the female figure in unnatural ways which women of that era would not
have been able to make themselves look the same.

Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ portrays the female body not realistically, which
‘Venus of Urbino’ does neither or conventionally feminine but depicts flesh coloured female
figures with off-sized body parts and breasts. The five figures are the complete opposite to
ideal with some shown to have unrealistic faces and hands larger than heads. As a
confrontational painting, Picasso conveyed ideas about sexuality, about the female nude
and sexually transmitted diseases. In an original sketch, the female figures were shown
dancing around two extra male figures as the setting is supposed to be in a brothel. The two
men are however, taken out to turn the women’s gaze outwards which was the same in
Manet’s Olympia and engage the viewer directly. One of the men, who was meant to be a
medical student, is said to have been looking at the women from a more analytical view
from more of a scientific perspective but also from an artistic perspective. With artists
having a history of dissecting human bodies and being able to understand the bone
structure and looking at the body analytically so Picasso will have had a better
understanding of how to paint the female figures in a more accurate way.